Conserving Biodiversity in the Amazon Basin Context and Opportunities for USAID.

摘要

In 2005 the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is launching a new regional program to support conservation of biological diversity in the Amazon Basin. To help guide the design of this new program, USAID requested that the Natural Resources Information Clearinghouse (NRIC) identify opportunities for USAID to contribute to biodiversity conservation in the Basin. From August to December 2004, the NRIC team spent four months visiting five countries in the region (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru), reviewing more than 100 documents and meeting with more than 250 representatives of USAID, governmental agencies, NGOs, community groups, and companies. Key elements of, and insights and recommendations for, a regional program were identified during this process. The Agency will use this assessment to develop and carry out a regional conservation strategy. The Amazon Basins biological diversity is staggering. It holds the largest area of contiguous and relatively intact tropical forest in the world. While these biological assets could provide a sound foundation for regional development, they are instead threatened by unsustainable resource uses that are associated with agriculture, ranching, logging, mining, petroleum exploration, and fishing. These threats, in turn, are provoked by forces such as population growth, infrastructure development, expanding commodity markets, insecure land and natural resources tenure, and distorted policy incentives. This web of threats and drivers is complex and operates from the local to regional and international levels. Weak enforcement of environmental laws and regulations undermine efforts to protect biological resources. To date, approximately 15 percent of the Basin has been deforested. Continued large-scale deforestation within the Basin may disrupt climate processes resulting in less rainfall, with far-reaching impacts to biodiversity, agriculture, fisheries, and the livelihoods of indigenous people who have lived in the Basin for millennia. Conserving the regions biological diversity requires large-scale actions that address both threats and drivers at local, national, and regional levels. CJ Rushin-Bell/USAID USAID-sponsored regional environmental programs elsewhere in the world show that successful design and implementation of regional programs requires: (1) a clear regional agenda, (2) political buy-in from the outset, (3) strong local ownership by program participants, (4) strong institutional partnerships at diverse scales from local to regional, and (5) mainstreaming of supported activities and results into sectoral policies and programs. In addition, it was found that such programs require counterpart institutions operating at multiple-country or region-wide levels. Among the most prominent existing regional programs in the Amazon Basin for USAID to collaborate with are the Organizacion del Tratado de Cooperacion Amazonica (OTCA) and the Coordinadora del las Organizaciones Indigenas del la Cuenca Amazonica (COICA), a regional organization representing indigenous peoples.